1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of optimizing networked data processing systems, and particularly to a method and system of generating diagnostic resources to facilitate the optimization or networked data processing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many modern businesses operate computer networks that include at least one central server computer and a collection of client computers. It will be appreciated that periodic backup of the data on such a collection of client computers helps reduce the chance of data loss, in the event of the failure of one or more client computers. As a business grows, more and more client computers may be added to the computer network, which results in increased demands on the server. System administrators often struggle with balancing available server resources and the demand the client computers place on those server resources. Such a balance is herein referred to “capacity planning.” An example of a server resource is the storage capacity of storage devices coupled to the server.
In the past, system administrators have not been able to reliably determine the number of storage devices that should be coupled to a server to efficiently provide service to clients. If too few storage devices are coupled to a server, clients requesting services from the server will encounter service delays. If there are too many storage devices coupled to the server, some storage devices will remain idle, which results in wasted resources, because some of the storage devices are not in use. Thus, there is a need for a more effective and reliable system for managing capacity planning on a network.